Why did Rome fall?

Question

Rome was once the pinnacle of Western Civilization but they lost it all. Where do you think they began to lose their position of prominence? Can you see any parallels in the current world? Yes it's a homework question but I won't to know if I've found the correct answer. :) Can't ever be to careful :) Thank you!

Answer 1

The leadership of Rome wasn't that great and they did not have enough military strength, they relied to much on barbarians fighting barbarians and used a mercenary army which rarely or never works.

Answer 2

Well, I doubt your textbook will tell you this but;

The basis of every civilization coming to it's end is of the roots of two problems.

They thought their civilization was better than the ones that have crumbled in the past and they will last forever.  No one starts anything thinking it will fail.  Think of it like marriage.  You don't get married thinking it will soon come to it's end.  So was the Roman Empire.  They just didn't know how to react to the early warnings of trouble because they always thought their empire would forever be.

Secondly,

Resources.

The Roman Empire stretched so far, they could not get food and supplies everywhere they needed to be and over time, the lack of resources and the money wasted on attempting to keep things going the way they've always been, for so long, led to it's eventual and inevitable, demise.

And lastly, yes, you certainly can see a parallel to today's American society.

Answer 3

The historian Gibbon blamed Rome's decline and fall upon "religion and barbarism," among other things, which led to individualism. People were "doing their own thing," pursuing their individual interests or heeding their individual consciences, instead of serving the best interests of the Nation.

The Italian founders of Fascism argued that the totalitarian society they were creating would be like that of the early Romans. They attributed the decline and fall of the Roman Republic/Empire to the rise of individual freedom.

Answer 4

Cuz they had a complicated orda!

Answer 5

The Romans met a superior military force.  That was all!  Tacitus wrote a survey of the German people in the 1st century,

predicted that they could be worse than any other enemy Rome ever faced, if the Germans  ever united...He turned out to be right.

Once the Germanic people had their backs against the wall, and were forced out of their homelands by people to their east, they had to move westward (into the Roman empire) for survival.

In some ways Rome declined by the 5th century, but in many ways she was at her peak.  The empire was more united than other, as everyone was made a citizen, and Latin was more widely spoken than ever.  She was at her moral superiority - She no longer executed people for sport in the arena (300's),

gladitorial combat ended, and Christianity (Romans were previously non-religious) was the state religion.  She had the largest army ever, and copied the methods of other successful armies....The only way such an empire could 'fall'

was by meeting a superior military force.

Answer 6

The Eastern Roman Empire was destroyed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, pure and simple. But the Western Roman Empire was destroyed by a sundry of stresses. Here are some of the factors that contributed to The Western Roman Empire’s downfall:

- Taxation: In order to collect more taxes, Rome sentenced any landowner that could not pay his taxes to become a tax collector. And, a tax collector’s children were also condemned to be life-long tax collectors. It became a caste. So, a lot of the kids joined the army to get out of tax collecting. But when the treasury was desperate enough, they forced the solders back into tax collecting.

- Barbarian technology transfer: When the Germanic tribes were hunter/gathers they posed on real threat to Rome. But when they learned from the Romans how to cultivate wheat, they were able to place serious armies on the march.

- Barbarian immigration: The Roman army began to accept barbarians into their ranks until it was difficult to differentiate the barbarian armies from the Roman army.

- Huns: Attila and his boys really tore up the edges of the empire.

- Plague: The bubonic (or black) plague hit Roman port cities hard.

- Corruption: A series of insane or compromised leadership.

- Barbarian armies: Citizens of Rome were surprised when the Visigoths arrived at the gates of Rome. But in the end, barbarian armies from every tribe marched up and down the Italian peninsula with impunity.